18.09.2011

Crane overturn Indiana

Last Monday – September 12th a 35 ton Rough Terrain crane overturned on a I-90 near Gary Indiana, causing serious disruption to traffic.

Fortunately no one was seriously injured, The crane a Grove RT, was owned and operated by Ellas construction of Munster Indiana. This is not the first lifting accident that this company has suffered and if our information is correct the regular operator was not the one at the controls last Monday. Instead company owner John Eliopoulos, 52, was working the unit.

The crane was reportedly unloading of moving steel reinforcing bar on an almost fully extended main boom, when it flipped over onto its side. Why/how? The outrigger beams were fully retracted and the jacks simply extended straight down, due to the limited space in the traffic lane it was lifting from.
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The fallen crane

The crane looks as though it had just begun to slew over the side with its unstable combination when it went over. The boom came down accross part of the toll road causing traffic to be diverted while a recovery plan was put into place.